What the Moonlight Brings
by MJ Huwaine
Summary: Sarah lives alone in a small house in the woods. While walking her dog, she comes upon an injured man out in the open. But what happens when she gets an unsuspected kiss?
1. Chapter 1

"Pathetic!" a man called out into the night, tossing the other aside like a book. "Impudent fool!" He was laughing at him now as his hand gripped the top of his head by his blond hair, tossing him forward into the mud. "You're such a waste of life…" he wrapped his hand around the smaller mans throat, thrusting him against the tree, his feet dangling just above the ground.

Something sharp pressed against the blond man's shoulder, something cool, something iron; he looked down in horror to find a dagger burning and tearing against his skin. It followed a violent path downwards, slicing any flesh that came into contact with it and leaving burnt bleeding edges. With what seemed the last bit of breath left in his lungs, he cried in pain, choked and just before he went limp, he was dropped.

"And now, you die alone just like your ancestors before you…" the larger man kicked him in the side."Bastard," the large man muttered as he walked off, smiling cruelly at the sound of the other coughing weakly through the blood leaking from his lips.

The blonde man was left there, sitting against a tree, horribly injured and in pain beyond belief. He knew it. He was going to die here alone just as so many of his forefathers had gone out. And as the last of his blood covered the grass, he let out a deep, painful sigh, and let the overpowering darkness take his body into a deadly slumber.

The cool night air was calming as the dog wandered around in the endless woods. Pine trees stretched as far as the eye could see, birds chirped at the perfect hours, and the owls would hoot softly to soothe your jumpy soul if you knew the hour they came out. Sometimes, being miles and miles away from civilization was a good thing.

"Please, Merlin. It's getting late!" Merlin, her shaggy gray and white fluff ball of a dog was her only companion at her house; he acted as a guard dog as a pup, but now that he was older and lazy, he really was only kept as a companion to keep her from feeling too lonely. The dog continued to sniff the ground, in search of a place it hadn't discovered just yet. The shaggy dog began to whine as it sat down and lifted it nose to the air, gesturing a howl. "C'mon Merlin! I'd like to get some sleep tonight." The dog's owner continued to mutter as she pulled on the lead.

Merlin's nose came back into contact with the ground, sneezing as a bug flew up one nostril. Panting, the dog pulled forward, its strength maxing out that of the girl. He began to bark into the darkness, tugging ever so hard on his lead.

"Merlin!" she called out, trying to calm the dog down. "Merlin, quiet!" the dog did not listen to its master. It only proceeded to bark and growl in the direction that faced away from the house in the midst of the woods. She gave one final tug on the lead, but to no avail. "Let's go! We don't have time for you to go off chasing squirrels!" she snapped.

Merlin turned and growled at her. She jumped back a little bit, surprised by her dog's actions. He turned and strained on the lead, all his weight pressing forward. The lead snapped in two and he took off, howling with all the air in his lungs. "Merlin!"

The brunette girl took off after the dog, doing her best to keep up in her slippers. It was dark enough that the dog had no shadow, but the moonlight showed a faint outline of its shaggy form. She continued to call after her pet but she gained nothing more than the dog picking up speed, as if he were in pursuit.

"Merlin! Get back here!" she stopped suddenly when a wicked scent caught her nose. She coughed a little bit and covered her nose with her arm, looking around for its source. She took one final sniff; it had a familiar scent, something like metal, and it was mixed with what smelled like something had been singed. _Did some one start a fire nearby? _She looked around a bit more, catching sight of something almost pure-white. Trying to be brave, she took a step forward, stepping over a few large sticks and limbs along the way.

She touched the tree, feeling for some sort of sign of fire, but only felt something ooze over her finger nails. She removed her hand from the trees trunk, holding her hand in front of her face. She took a breath before she inspected the substance. There was an odd smell to it that she couldn't quite identify, it could have been tree sap, she licked one of her fingers.

Sputtering, she realized it was blood that was coating the skin of the tree. Searching for its source, she dropped to her knees, her hand tracing down the tree before coming into contact with something soft. It felt like fur.

The fur led down to what felt like a face, which had a body. _It's a person! _She took their shoulder in her hand, shaking it slightly. "Hey…wake up." She muttered softy, trying to rouse the creature. "It's not safe to sleep out here." The figure groaned, moving slightly, as if it were dreaming.

When she continued to shake him, the head suddenly lifted; pale skin glistened in the moonlight, revealing two different colored eyes to the girl. One was a frosty blue, the other a warm shade of honey-brown. Before she could get any words out, he lurched forward and pressed his lips to hers.

She froze dead center. When he left off, he let out one last breath before falling against her chest and falling back into what seemed a deep sleep. She began to tremble uncontrollably. _What…what just happened? _Her mind was racing wildly, as if she were a caged bird. _Did he just…kiss me? _She looked down at the blonde man, moving her hand away from his shoulder, only to find it covered with more blood.

Staring out into the darkness then back to the man and away again, she tried to decide on what to do. Did she leave him here to die or did she take him in and try to heal him in hopes that it was only a mistake? There wasn't much time for deciding, but she didn't want people to find him all alone out her only to determine that she could have killed him herself, seeing she was the only one that lived this far out of town.

_Please…don't be a criminal…_she threw his arm over her shoulder, finding him to be rather heavy for such a lithe figure. There wasn't much to him. _How long has he been out here?_ She had forgotten completely about Merlin, all that mattered right now was the well being of this man.

_Why do I have to walk Merlin so many miles from home? _She mentally kicked herself as she continued down the dirt path back to her house. Compared to him, she was almost like a troll. He was tall, and her…short. He was light, but his height made up for it. She had to almost drag him back to her house. _There's no way I'm going to be able to make it back to my house any time soon…_she cursed at herself under her breath, trying to forget about the weight on her back. The moon was high enough for her to see, but even so, she still felt like she was walking through velvet. It was dark enough that she had to use what she knew of the forest that surrounded her house to get back home.

"I'm going to have to find Merlin in the morning…" she muttered, bouncing him back up onto her shoulder. "That dog's not going to be happy when I find him either…" all Merlin had done was lay around, and when he was on his feet, he would randomly bark his head off like he was about to keel over and die, or like something was outside the house that he _protected _everyday. She shook her head and breathed deeply, stopping for air. She compared their sizes once more.

If she had to guess, he was at least six feet, if not that, a little under. She herself was about five and a half, making them about at least a six inch difference. He was rather slim, but then again, so was she.

She shivered when she felt blood slipping over her hand, its warm and sticky feeling causing her skin to crawl. _I'm going to have to try and get the doctor to make a house call…there's no way I'll be able to handle this all by myself…_she again kicked herself mentally as she continued on the trek towards her house. _Way to go Sarah. A house in the country was a brilliant idea…but now that you need civilization, you can't get it…_there was the possibility she had enough medical supplies laying around her house that she could treat his wounds before the doctor arrived, but there wasn't any telling whether or not he had some sort of infection or if he needed a certain amount of some medicine, or any other thing that was specific and couldn't be given in a makeshift hospital at home.

She starred ahead of her daftly, wanting nothing more than sleep. She had been moving slowly and the night just seemed to drag on forever just carrying this man to her home. There was no way she could keep this up, especially with some guy draped over her shoulder, and having the possibility of bleeding to death didn't help her out either.

"Damn conscience…" she snapped softly. "If it weren't for you, I could be sleeping right now…I don't even know this guys, but the fact that I could be linked back to his murder could be of worse circumstances if they do find him." She looked at his face. "I just hope you don't die…"


	2. Chapter 2

It had been nearly two days now and he still hadn't awakened. She was beginning to worry he was either dead or was about near it. There was some reason to why he was near her house out her on the country side, but she decided to try and wait to try and figure it out, hoping he could give her an answer. _I really just hope he's not a criminal…_she didn't want to find out that the person she had in her house was actually injured in some sort of heist that he took part in.

She replaced the cold cloth on his head, trying to reduce the fever he had from being out late at night. There wasn't any way he could have been in a heist. He didn't have a gun, or any weapon that could link him to the civil war being fought down in the more southern states. He wasn't carrying any sort of stolen object, or anything illegal that could maim him as a criminal. There wasn't any sign he had been shot, he just looked like he was beat up by someone that carried a warm piece of metal hidden somewhere nearby.

The thing that scared her the most was the knife mark that went from shoulder the mid-chest. The line of its mark was rigid, almost as if it had to be ripped apart with a large amount of force; the areas around it were singed like it had been in a fire of some sort.

It terrified her. Out of all the injuries that were on this mans body, it was that one that seemed the most fatal. It was deep, but not deep enough to need any kind of surgery, but it still needed to be bandaged every so often to keep from becoming infected with some sort of blood disease. That was the last thing she needed was a diseased man in her house, along with blood soaked linens.

He moved in his sleep, but didn't wake up, causing her to unknowingly worry. And she still hadn't found Merlin. That crazy sheep dog was always running after things like squirrels and other small animals, but he was too big to be quiet and too lazy to try hard enough to catch them. _I should probably go out looking for him…_she turned her gaze to the door. _But I can't leave this guy here in my house…what if he wakes up?_

Almost like an outside force was answering her prayers, a bark occurred outside her house. "Merlin?" she whispered, walking to the door, opening it to find that large sheep dog ogling her. She smiled and squatted down to meet the dog's gaze. Her hands slid over his jaw line, rubbing tenderly as she led it inside. "Good boy…" she smiled sweetly as she patted his head; Merlin just looked at her. She went back to the room to check in on her patient, only to find he was still asleep in her bed.

He groaned in his sleep slightly as he tried to fight off the darkness that continued to cloud his eyes. When his eyes finally fluttered open, he saw a brunette girl standing over him, a halo of light glowing around her. She smiled softly, her hair falling in front of her face. _Am I dead…? _Her green eyes met his mismatched ones.

He figured he was dreaming, and dreams were often treacherous and tempting, including this one. Ignoring the pain, he lifted himself up slightly, just enough to catch her lips in a single kiss, before he keeled over and fell back into the dark path of oblivion.

She stared at him again. Twice in less than forty-eight hours, and he was still partially unconscious. What was she supposed to do? Kick him out and let him die in the forest because he had kissed her and fallen back down without realizing he wasn't dreaming. For all she knew, the person who had done this to him was still out there searching for him.

She shook the thought away from her head. This wasn't what she wanted to think. There was an endless amount of possibilities to what had happened, she just wasn't thinking straight, that was all. She looked his injuries over again. One single knife wound, torn and burned; several bruised covered his torso like he had been kicked a couple of times; his hair was matted with dirt, giving away the fact that he had been outside her house for hours before she had found him. His arms had several small cuts here and there, but they were all minor in proportion to the large one.

_What kind of a weapon can make such small incisions, but burn someone's flesh that much with one stroke? _She went through whatever little knowledge she knew about weaponry from her father's side of the family. _If I remember correctly, a katana is the sword that slices cleanly through something, but you can't usually find one of those here in America…a pocketknife makes more sense with the smaller wounds, but doesn't say anything about the larger one. Unless someone took a dagger to this guy then attempted to set him on fire, there isn't anything that can do this…it's almost impossible._

She noticed a spot of blood on his bandages and sighed. "At least I don't have to be bored with you, do I?" she muttered softly, picking up the bandages from beside the bed. She lifted him up enough that she could unravel his old bandages. What she saw amazed her. _Is that even possible? _Most of his smaller wounds were already gone along with some of the bruises, but something was wrong. The large on seemed to be ripped further apart than it had been only minutes ago. _Maybe I don't really need the doctor?_

The idea had occurred to her, that maybe she wouldn't really need one to come to her house, but she wasn't exactly sure how much medical treatment he needed. She had taken care of her mother before she died long ago when she was only a child, and of her father after her mother died. And after so many years of babysitting her step brother, she had learned almost enough medical lessons that she could become an at home nurse.

_I really do think you need some medication, but I'm not sure what you can and can't have. That burn must be painful. _She ran her fingers over it softly, managing to avoid waking him up or hurting him any more than he was. That area that was burned was still warm. _How is it that you're healing so fast? _He moved slightly and she tore her hand away from his body. Her fingers were stained red with blood again. _It must have torn open when he…_the memory flashed in her mind.

She shook her head, closing that memory out of her brain. Unwrapping the roll of bandage tape, she lifted him up off the mattress again and began to wrap the cut again, hoping that this time it wouldn't be torn apart again. Tucking that last part of bandage into the others, she sat him back against his pillow. _Now if only I could read minds…then I might know what exactly happened to you…_she began to look for Merlin in the house. He had been all too quiet for her taste.

She left the room in search of the lazy rag doll only to find him sitting on the guest beds where she had been sleeping for the past few days. Merlin only continued to stare at her through his thick fur that covered his black eyes. "It really is a wonder how you can see with all of that in your face…" she giggled a little bit before clapping her hands, calling the dog to her.

He gladly came, all the while breathing in her face. She sat just outside the door, playing with the dog, almost like she was waiting for him to wake up. There wasn't much she could do for him, any way, was there? _Maybe I should bring in the doctor? That wound is the only thing that isn't healing properly…and the doctor might be able to help out a little bit…_the thought occurred to her many times, but she was never entirely sure if he would be able to help in this situation.

"What do you think, Merlin?" she asked playfully, rubbing his head. "Should I try to get the doctor to make a house call?" Merlin barked his answer. Which way he was going with it, she didn't know. "Me too…" her decision was final; she was going to call the doctor in to see if he could at least help her in some way.


	3. Chapter 3

The doctor came in slowly, old age keeping him down. When he looked up, he smiled up at her. "Yes. What seems to be the problem?" he asked, standing up a little straighter, pressing a hand to his head. "You don't seem to be hurt as much as you claim…"

"No…I'm not the wounded one. He's in the other room." The doctor's face scrunched up in question.

"_He?" _The word was strained. "I didn't know you were-"

_"_I'm not. I found him the other night and he…" she stopped short of her sentence, not wanting to mention the kiss. "Was wounded." She finished. He nodded his head, but didn't believe a word she said. _Probably picked him up at a bar after a fight…_

Drudgingly, he followed her to her room down the hallway, opening the door for him. She patiently waited for him to go through before she herself went inside, closing the door behind them. Merlin greeted them happily, nudging her hand as she stood against the wall. "Now, let's see what wrong…" he looked the man lying on the bed over, inspecting what was wrong. _Totally picked him up at a bar, _he concluded soundly, _no wonder she wanted me over here…he looks like he's from out of town…_

Peeling the covers down over his torso, he caught sight of the bandages that were stretched across his skin, a faint smell of something burning catching his nose. Without asking, he lifted away the tape to further inspect what was wrong. He nearly fell backwards. "What the hell is that?!" he pointed to the largely burnt area of skin.

"I was hoping you could tell me…" she murmured calmly. "I told you…I found him injured like this. He's been out for almost three days now. I was hoping maybe you could give a little bit of a boost; you know, to help him become healthier faster?" she stammered, not really knowing what to say herself.

She disposed of the bandages that had fallen upon the floor, listening to the doctor babble to himself as he inspected the wounded further. "Looks to me like he got a bit burnt…" he muttered, "but I'm not sure what with." Sighing, he covered the other back up with the blanket. "The least you can do is keep up whatever work you've been doing and try not to move him around too much. The smaller ones seem to be healing rather nicely, but the larger one…" he trailed off, looking over his shoulder. "You'll just have to wait and see what happens. I have nothing that I can do."

"I understand." She nodded slightly in agreement. "Have you heard any word from my father?" ever since the war had kicked up, she moved out where she currently was, only to find out that once she moved away, her father was drafted into the war. She hadn't heard from him since.

"I'm sorry, but I haven't. The war's been getting worse as the days progress. Who's to say that there will be a town left when things are through?" she nodded again, completely understanding that stakes were high, especially with spies being sent across the border to inspect the armies secretly, hoping to gain something in retrospect.

"Do you know if the rest of the family is okay?" she asked, her hopes a bit higher to hear how Karyn and Toby were doing, and that they were hopefully doing well. Ever since Robert left, she had lost connections with all areas of her family.

"Karyn came to me the other day for some medication for Toby, but it was only for a fever." Was the beginning response she received. "Other than that, everything seems to be fine." Her eagerness lowered. _No one seems to know what's going on any more…ever since that damned war, families have been ripped apart because no one knows which side to fight for…_

She walked with the doctor to the door, giving her thanks and good byes almost inaudibly. Once the door was shut, Merlin began to bark softly from the door. Following the noise, she found that he had moved again. Sighing deeply, she muttered under her breath. "If you're going to move…you should wake up at least…"

A good two days went by since the doctor had come for a visit, only to tell her that he couldn't do anything. Her heart continued to sink as she receive letters from her family telling her that Toby was still sick with a fever but it was only a little past a hundred degrees and that he would be okay. It felt like she had been cut off.

Karyn wasn't telling her if she was okay, if the house was still intact, she didn't even say anything about her friends or the town. Just a plain old 'everything's fine; don't worry' letter. She wouldn't believe any word she heard from her step-mother, considering she almost made her life a living hell-on-earth when she was a teenager due to never having a child of her own; and to make things worse, when Toby was born, she was treated like she was next to nothing.

But now, when she wanted to hear her yelling at her the most, she was possibly gone. And to make matters worse, she had an injured man lying in her bed. _What else could go wrong? _She began to think. With the war going on miles and miles away from her grounds, she wondered maybe if he was a stranger to these parts of the country. _He didn't have any _weapons _on him, maybe he was a spy sent out on an errand to spot something on the enemy lines? Do spies carry around weapons of any sort? _She went through another endless list of possibilities, ending with 'he could have been caught and left there'. The situation seemed possible, considering he was mostly bruises and scrapes from the neck down.

Merlin pounced into the room, causing her mind to jump back to reality, only to find herself mindlessly crumpling a piece of paper she held in her hands. Growling, she threw it at the fireplace that was burning calmly in its hearth. She looked down to find the dog staring at her while panting, tired from running around that house after his ball that seemed to roll away every time he came near it. Smiling, she patted the cushion next to her, Merlin hopping up beside her, curling up to fit his head into her lap. She rubbed him lovingly on the head. "What do you think?" she asked teasingly, "Should we trust him?"

Merlin only barked happily, rubbing his nose against her palm. She giggled, patting his back.

"Agreed." She murmured, standing up as she went back to inspect what was moping around in her room. Merlin followed along, his nose in the air as he watched her open the door and walk in. "Now, Merlin. You must behave yourself if you're going to be in here." She explained, recalling the last time he was inside her room; he nearly hopped up onto the bed and trampled him. It made her laugh, but it also worried her.

He was moving more often now, but he was still in a trance-like sleep. _He acts like he's been shot with multiple tranquilizer pods or something…I've never seen any one stay unconscious for over a week from injuries. _She felt his head, finding it to be of normal heat. _Compared to when Dad had gotten hit with that car years ago, he had more injuries than I could count that were worse than this, but he woke up within a few days. _A shiver went up her spine as she remembered her own father waving to her as he looked both ways and crossed the street, and ironically, a car flying out of nowhere had hit him.

Something about his face caught her eye. Not a scratch had been on his face the entire time she had taken care of him. _Normally when people get hurt like this, people usually aim for the face to try and cause some sort of brain damage, but this guy…_her fingers moved his hair away, inspecting further what she hadn't noticed for days. _This guy doesn't have anything that suggests he was actually beaten up. It looks more or less like they were just playing around or had some sort of ground rules set before it even took place._

While her fingers brushed his hair away from his eyes, he groaned. Before she could snap her hand away, his eyes fluttered open. He was awake.


	4. Chapter 4

His eyes stared at her, her hand snapping back to her side. Before she could say anything, he sat up. He groaned and nearly fell back over before she could catch him. "Who are you…" he choked out wearily. Mismatched eyes caught hers from the corner, expecting an answer.

"My name is Sarah." She sat his head against the pillow again, letting him lay there as he had for about a week now. "You were about a mile away from my house." That still didn't answer the question of how and where. "Might I ask what your name is?" she sat down in the chair like she always had, her hands neatly folded in her lap.

"Jareth." He said simply. "Now, what were you saying about finding me by your house?" Sarah simply nodded.

"You see, I was walking…uh…" she looked around for a moment, finding Merlin curled up by the closet. "Merlin," she pointed to the shaggy-furred beast. "When he must have caught scent of something, he broke off his lead and ran off." His eyes didn't move away from hers. "And before I could catch up, I found you…" she finished her story. "I've been taking care of you for about a week now, seeing that there wasn't really anywhere else you could go." One of Jareth's eye brows raised in apprehension.

"Where did you say you lived again?" he managed to say, ignoring the pain coursing through his tired body.

"I live in the country area, away from civilization and war." She answered softly, memory of her father's letters coming in day by day assuring her that things would be okay. She brushed off the thought. "Speaking of which, you wouldn't mind answering some of my questions, would you?" Jareth had managed to sit up to be further interrogated. She helped him out a little bit by placing a pillow behind him.

"I don't think it could hurt. Besides, I guess I owe you for taking care of a stranger." His eyes were watching her again, and she began to fidget under her gaze, mumbling to herself.

She twiddled her thumbs before trying to come up with a question that she wanted answered. "Where exactly did you come from?" she chose to start with the basics, the five 'W's.

"I'm from…" he stopped short. _I can't just tell her about the other side…_ "Out of town; you've probably never heard of it." He began to grin at her bewilderment of his answer.

"Try me…" she challenged. _Shit…_

"Ever heard of Oubliette?" Jareth smiled at her, obviously knowing he had won his own game.

"No." Sarah stated simply. _Is that even a place? _"What were you doing out in the woods so late at night?" she decided to let his location of birth slip and go on to the next question, not wanting to further confuse herself.

"I can't really remember…" he lied. "The only thing I remember is getting knocked somewhere near the throat before things went black." Lying became the best way out of things, he found, and so he used whatever little knowledge he had about such things and went with it.

"When did you come here?" ignoring the fact his eye were watching her reactions carefully, she continued to press into what exactly had happened.

"I've been around these parts for a little more than a year." More lying. _This is too easy…maybe she knows something? _Jareth just continued to do what he could to get by without really telling her anything. He was just hoping he wasn't going to ask what had happened to him when he was out there.

"All right, that would make sense…I guess." She thought upon his answers a bit more, leaving a silence between them. _He said he didn't remember much of what happened, so I can't really ask him why, let alone press any further into what happened. I guess I can question about the war? _She went ahead with her questioning as best she could under his gaze. "Do you serve in the war?" she asked.

"War?" That sparked something. If he didn't know about the war that was going on, let alone if he wasn't drafted, then he couldn't have been here for more than a year, let alone a few weeks.

"You've been lying." She stated knowingly. "If you've been here more than a year, then you would know about the Civil war between North and the South!" she smiled as his grin faded away. "And not only that, but you would be fighting in the war instead of lying around my land." She finished, feeling satisfied with her observation.

"Yes, but did you ever think that maybe I could have been kicked out due to some sort of problem or lack of persistency due to being a foreigner?" Jareth began to smile again. "Or that maybe I am part of the war movement and could have just forgotten about it momentarily?" Sarah began to look confused for a moment until another idea clicked in her head.

"You say that now, but with all those men being killed off on the borderlines, then people wouldn't be kicked out of the war movement, and either way, you would have been trained with hands-on technology and what not, giving you no reason to have been left behind by your comrades. And another thing; how is it that you can _forget _a war when war is practically the biggest thing that people are afraid of now-a-days? It's virtually illogical." She finished her sentence with a deep sigh, trying to catch her breath from her long explanation.

Jareth was impressed by the amount of knowledge she had crammed into her head, and was further impressed by the fact that what she said made, if any at all, sense. But he still couldn't bring it to himself to not say, "What are you talking about?"

"You're not a veteran, nor are you a soldier in the war, but you claim that you've been here for over a year." She began again from a different perspective. "Thus, when you said that, it shows that you're lying because of something either that happened or you did. And another thing that proves you're lying is you didn't even _know _there was a war present." Sarah was using more minor words than she thought she had, but continued on. "Which brings us to the claim about being kicked out and, or, left behind, which is almost impossible because they've started to draft men into the war, meaning they can use all the help they could get, which makes your statement, and impossibility." She took a deep breath again. "Understand?" Jareth only nodded. _Defeated again…just wonderful; now if I could just find a way to get her to trust me, then maybe I can hang low for a while?_

"You're rather clever, _Princess*._" He drawled, causing her to cringe when he chuckled. "But I don't think you quite understand my predicament." Jareth only smiled at her again. "I don't call it war. I see it more as…oh, what would we call it?" he laughed a little bit more before finishing, "Make believe."

Sarah just gawked at him. _Make believe? Did he hit his head or something? _"What are you, five?"

"Come now, dear Sarah." He began to drawl again. "Is that any way to speak to an injured man?" he made a face like she had offended him. Sarah only rolled her eyes in return. "It's not like we can just forgive who we hurt any more."

"If that's the case, then maybe you'd like to try and explain what happened to you and why?" Sarah pressed hopefully. She earned a wider smile.

"All in good time, _Princess_, all in good time."

~~* Sarah means "Princess" or "Lady" in Hebrew. (Thank you Pinfeathers!)


	5. Chapter 5

Sarah couldn't help but watch Jareth sleep. Recently, whenever she awoke and went to check in on him, there was a white owl feather or two waiting for her on his pillow, but he would still be sleeping. Each day she picked them up and placed them in a jar in the room she currently stayed in, amused by how soft they were, loving the feeling when she ran her fingers over them.

The morning she woke up, though, she placed the one in her pocket because ever since she had held onto them, she seemed to have a sudden strike of luck that she decided to hold onto it for the day, just as a test drive to see if they were lucky or not.

"I have to go into town today seeing we're almost out of some things." She told Jareth as he awoke slowly. "I'll be back in a few hours. Can you manage?" Jareth scoffed at her question.

"Of course. I'm a man, after all…" he smiled at her. Sarah just rolled her eyes.

"Sure you are…"

It had been over a week, and he hadn't heard anything about a body being found. He had left him there to die, and yet he had gone uncaught. He expected something to happen sooner or later, but either way, with the war going on, the police were probably caught up with riots around town.

Chuckling to himself, he went back to the streets of town, looking for something to attain his amusement.

Town wasn't busy these days, considering so many were at war when they should be home protecting their families from open fire attacks that happened nearly every day. He figured maybe he would go find someplace that was selling something on the street. There was always something interesting happening there.

That was when he spotted it. A girl bent over one of the tables at the market to grab something, a single owl feather sticking out of her pocket. _It can't be…_he picked up his pace a bit to catch her before she left his sight. _There's no way…_

Before he could even get to her, she left the stand, heading in the direction of another. She still didn't escape his sight though.

Eventually catching up with her, he looked at her for a minute before speaking. "Excuse me, Miss?" he tapped her shoulder. "I couldn't help but noticed the beautiful feather in your pocket, and I must ask, where did you find it?" he asked curiously. She looked up at him, looking for an excuse to having Jareth's feather in her pocket.

"Oh, this?" she looked down and touched it. "I found it by my house. I live out in a wooded area, so owl's are very common." She smiled softly at him before attempting to go back to her task.

"I don't believe _barn owls _live in this area." He said slowly, drawling on the words 'barn owl', trying to prove his point. "Although, I did have a few around my place that flew away.." he stared at her, making her fidget. "Mind if I take a look around your place to see if any belong to me?" he smiled a toothy grin at her, causing her to take a step back in caution.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think my _husband _would like that…" she lied quickly. Paying for the small amount of things she had just looked at, she began to walk away, but he continued to question her.

"Oh, don't worry. I won't be _too _much of a bother…" He followed her throughout the town square. _If I've come this far, I'm not going to take no for an answer. _"I just want to see if the owl's are mine or not. It shouldn't be for more than a few minutes or so…" She only shook her head.

"I'm sorry, but you really are making me uncomfortable." She said curtly before turning her head to face him. "And I already told you; no." she continued walking away.

"What if I gave you my name?" he asked. "Maybe exchange some information with you, make myself known to you and your husband?" she paid no heed to him. "Damn it." He muttered, watching her stalk away from him towards her horse. He watched her carefully as she stashed her purchases away into the saddlebag, eying the male clothing in particular, and hop up onto the animals back. As she rode away, the feather flew from her pocket and onto the ground before his feet.

He picked it up, looking at it carefully. _White with brown stripes…definitely belongs to that bastard…_he looked back up to see she was fully out of sight from his current position. Smiling, he turned around, stalking towards the bar.

As he walked in, some of his old friends greeted him happily. "Hey there, Adrien!" they would chirp as they waved their mugs of beer and ale around in the air in greeting. He'd wave back and sit with them. The minute he did, he took out the feather.

"Look familiar, boys?" they stared in bewilderment at the snow white feather in his dark, dirty hands.

"Isn't that last guy you went after a…" he trailed off, not wanting to attract any kind of attention. Adrien nodded, a devilish smirk on his face.

"You boys up for a bit of a hunt?"

Sarah went home, setting everything on the table as she went into the bedroom. The door was cracked, but she didn't care. Slamming the door open, she stormed in until she was nearly face to face with Jareth who was tinkering with something. "All in good time…" she snapped. "why not tell me now feather boy?" Jareth only looked up from his entertainment.

"Feather boy? Sarah…" he looked at her, confused. "Are you okay?" she didn't take his dumbfoundedness lightly.

"I went into town for less than an hour to pick up a few things and I get questioned about a single feather that I found on _your _pillow this morning!" Jareth's eyes widened slightly.

"Feather?"

"Yes Jareth…a feather." She was breathing heavily by the time she sat down in the chair. "Someone came up behind me and was asking questions about it. Something happened to you, and he knows about it. What's going on?" almost as if it were on cue, the doorbell rang.

Sarah looked back and stood up. _If that's him, I swear I'll scream. _Cautiously, she walked to the door. Merlin followed behind her after exiting the guest bedroom where he had been sleeping. When she opened the door, she found a good friend of her father's behind it.

"Ah, Ms. Williams." He nodded in respect.

"Colonel." She did the same. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm afraid, there is dear Sarah." He began shortly after looking down at his feet. When his gaze met hers, his brown eyes were filled with something that Sarah couldn't read. "I'm afraid there has been…an accident." Sarah nodded, hopping that her step-mother and Toby were okay.

"What kind of accident?" she couldn't help but ask the dreaded question. She didn't notice Jareth standing in the doorway of the bedroom, listening in on their conversation.

"Your father…Robert…is dead."


	6. Chapter 6

Adrien looked around town for the girl again, but he never found her again. He had an idea that her 'husband' was really Jareth, and she knew that he wasn't anyone they wanted around. He figured he probably went crawling to her with his tail between his legs like the beat up dog he was.

"Hn." He looked at the feather again, admiring its silky texture. The way it glistened in the dim sunlight told him that he was healthy. _It seems that girl has been taking care of him. _Placing the feather back into his pocket, he looked in the direction of where he remembered her riding off. Pulling his hat further over his eyes to keep the rain from getting to him, he smiled and chuckled to himself. "Looks like I've got more on my hands than the Goblin King."

The rain was heavy the night of Sarah's dreaded news. Robert was dead. She could never imagine her father dying. He was so strong, so healthy, there wasn't any way he could die that easily, and yet the worst had happened. All Sarah could do was sit in her room and sob.

After making sure that Jareth was asleep, and Merlin was in the living room sleeping on the couch, she went to her room and closed the door, leaving the space to herself. She didn't want any one to see her crying; she couldn't help it. She had portrayed herself to be a strong-willed woman, but even now, as she sat upon her floor, clutching her pillow, she felt childish.

Lightning constantly illuminated her room, making pictures of her father known throughout her room. She stared at them almost menacingly with red eyes, her mind distraught. "You always said you wouldn't leave me…" she muttered, gripping her pillow tighter. "And then you tell me you'd come back alive…" she hurled her pillow at the photos of her family. "Where is that man who promised me he'd stay alive no matter what?!" she snapped, her throat burning.

She choked oh her tears. Falling back against the wall, she stared at her ceiling, crying. There wasn't any way to change the past, only the present and the future were available for that, but she still wanted to try and find a way to bring her father back. She loved him and he was the only family she had left. The only _real _family she had left. Karyn didn't care much about her, which is why she lived in this large house all alone, and Toby was bred through her, thus not even being blood related. She couldn't stand having Toby anywhere near her. All Karyn did was whine and complain about how Sarah didn't care for the family, and even now, when Robert was dead, she wondered if Karyn was crying the way she was for his death.

"Damn bitch…she probably doesn't even care that he's dead." She coughed grudgingly as she buried her face in her hands. "She never really did care much for us…she probably only wanted what my mother had with him." Linda and Robert were always happy together, until she died that one night of hay fever.

That brought forth new memories. Sarah began to cry again. _Mother…_Sarah clutched her knees to her chest, trying to cease the pain the coursed through her aching heart. _Father…_her eyes were burning, her throat hurt, she was shaking all over.

"Sarah?" her head snapped up to see Jareth standing in the doorway, making his way through the room towards her.

"Jareth…" she wiped her eyes, trying to conceal her tears away from him. "I thought you were asleep?" Jareth crouched in front of her, his hand touching her shoulder; his bicolored eyes were glowing in the darkness as they stared at her.

A flash of lightning lit up the room again, giving her a good glimpse of his face. "I was, but something didn't feel right." He murmured, rubbing the top of her head. "Are you okay?" his hand traced the side of her cheek, his thumb stroking away the single tear that escaped her eyes. Sarah closed her eyes, choking back another sob.

"I'm…fine." She sniffed between words. "Nothing's wrong…" she continued to hide herself.

"How can you say that when you've been sitting her crying?" his voice was soft, gentle. "It's okay to feel abandoned…" she looked up at him, and instead of choking down the last of her tears, she fell against his chest, crying against his shoulder.

Jareth embraced her carefully, rubbing the back of her head to try and calm her down. Sarah clung to him, almost like if she let go of him he would just disappear and she would be all alone again. She couldn't help but feel like she was connected to him.

When she had finally stopped crying, she sat there in his arms. "How did you know I was crying?" she finally asked as she stared at the picture frames that had fallen upon the pillow earlier. Some of the glass still lay shattered across the table top.

"I heard you across the room." He lied. He had been watching her, but she had yet to notice what he had been doing the past few days. "After I heard the noise of something breaking, I thought I would see if you were okay." Sarah took a deep breath and took the feather out from her jar that sat on her bedside table.

"Can I ask something of you?" She asked softly, looking at the feather. "A favor, if you will?" Jareth looked down at her and caught sight of the feather. He sighed.

"It depends on what you want me to do…" Sarah's heart sank a little more. She needed to know sometime soon, and she couldn't help but feel like something would happen if she didn't find out. Her mind was still set on that guy who had followed her around town asking about Jareth's feather that she had in her pocket that day.

Sarah held up the feather. "Where are these coming from?" she asked. Jareth took it from her hand and looked it over. _It's definitely one of my feathers…but how on earth did she get it? _"I kept finding them on your pillow every morning or so before you would wake up. I have a jar full of them, but I never found the time to ask about them." He looked down at her.

"I'll admit, the feathers are mine." He said softly, twirling the feather between his fingers. "I had some feather collected from some owls before you found me, and I guess I had put them someplace without realizing it…" Jareth continued to lie to her, "I guess they had just fallen out when I was asleep and you continued to pick them up." Sarah didn't believe him.

"If that's the case…" she muttered, "why would someone ask about them in town?" Jareth had forgotten about that part of her day. He looked back down at her again.

"Did he give you a name?" he queried. Sarah shook her head.

"He offered to give it to me, but I refused his offer. He wanted to come look around the house for some barn owls that lived around here, but he gave me this weird feeling…" she explained. "I didn't like the way he was asking questions about your feather, so I just told him no and left." Jareth only nodded and continued to play with the feather.

"Sarah…?" he looked at her only to find she had fallen asleep against his shoulder. He smiled at her warmly before he picked her up and placed her on the bed, and settling her in for the night. Before he left, he ran the back of his hand against her cheek before leaning and pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. "Good night, my Princess…"


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note: Okay, well, I have good news and bad news. Good news is I finally have an excuse to sit around and actually get around to updating this story. Bad news is, my excuse is just having gotten my Wisdom Teeth out the 4th of August. So, really the only thing I can do is sit around, sleep and take my vicodin while texting my family what I need/want. So wish me luck and go easy on me here (the computer I'm using doens't have Microsoft Word, so my grammer and spelling might be a little off without realizing it...considering I'm using the default wordpad and it doesn't have a grammatical check.) Enjoy.

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Sarah awoke the next morning with something shining in her face. As she sat up, she realized it was morning already. _I must have fallen asleep last night. _Looking around her room, she spotted Merlin sleeping soundly in the corner by her closet, but something else caught her eye. A single golden feather sat upon her pillow.

As she picked it up, she twirled it in her fingers, admiring it's features until her mind came back to the day she ran into the man in town. _That's right...Jareth's feathers might cause a bit of trouble if I carry them around too much. _She placed it in the jar next to her bed with the others and hopped out of bed, figuring she had slept in long enough. _Jareth's probably hungry..._she thought as her stomach gurgled.

When she got out the door, Merlin awoke and followed her out and around the house like a lost puppy. Patting his head affectionately, she continued down the corridor to Jareth's room, only to find that he was already out of bed.

"Jareth?" Sarah asked warily as she walked out the door, searching the hallways for him. "Hello?" as she walked into the den, she noticed he was sitting at the winow looking out onto the lawn. He jumped when she sat a hand on his shoulder. As he turned to look at her, he held up a single finger to his lips and turned back to the window to continue watching something outside. Interested, she sqautted down beside him and looked out a seperate window only to gasp in shock and fall backwards.

As her back hit the floor, her head collided with the table that sat by the door, causing the glass vase to fall over and come crashing down to the floor. As the vase shattered on the carpetted floor, Jareth turned around and ducked away from the window, only to lay on his hands and knees on the floor and look at her with the 'what happened' look on his face.

Sarah sat up and looked at Jareth, rubbing her head in the process. Before she could stand up, someone was at the door and knocking. Sarah continued to look at Jareth, but her gaze shifted from the door and back again multiple times, as if deciding whether or not she should answer. When she stood up to answer, Jareth only watched until her back was turned her back to him and headed towards the door.

He took off before she even turned the handle. As the oak door opened up a bit, Sarah caught sight of the guy from town. "Can I help you?" she asked politely, acting as though she had never met him before.

"I'm sorry, but the last time we met, I don't believe I properly introduced myself." he bowed down gracefully. "My name is Adrien Cresen." he smiled warmly at her. "May I ask your name?"

Sarah returned his smile unwillingly. "My name is Sarah." she answered sweetly, trying to conceal her concern for Jareth. "If you don't mind my asking, what you're doing all the way out here, so far away from town?" Adrien only looked at her awkwardly before realizing he was just snooping around her house in search of something.

"I was just looking for those owl's I told you about the other day." he mentioned, his gaze shifted around the room, as if he were searching for something. "But I thought I heard a crash, so I thought I would just come in a make sure everything was alright." something glinted in his eyes, and Sarah didn't like the look of the smile he held on his face.

When she realized he was trying to take a look around her house, she closed the door a little bit. "Everything is fine, my dog, Merlin, just ran into a table knocking over a vase." she lied quickly, trying to keep him from moving furhter. Adrien's look of disbelief concerned her, but her luck changed when Merlin came trotting into the room, nudging her hand with his nose. She happily rubbed his head. _Merlin, I'll have to thank you big time for this, _she thought as she looked back to Adrien.

His eyebrows furrowed in disbelief as the hairy sheep dog came over and sat in front of him, panting as he looked up at his face through large tufts of gray and white fur. Adrien lifted his hand in a gesture to pet him until Merlin growled and began barking at him, causing his hand to retreat automatically away from the dog. "How...charming." he said as a large blob of slobber fell to the floor in a puddle.

Sarah smiled proudly down at Merlin as she began to pet him again. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave. My husband is sick and I wouldn't want you to catch what he has." she lied.

Adrien was still looking around the hose again, making Sarah uncomfortable. "Mind if I check him out? I have a bit of doctors training myself." Sarah shook her head.

"It's only a fever. I can take care of it." Sarah's lying didn't seem to be working any more; Adrien began to move forward, trying to get into her house. Frantically, Sarah looked around her house, searching for an excuse to try and keep him from coming any further into her home. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave." she said finally.

"Oh, but I can't leave just yet. What if you're _husbands' _fever gets worse? And I still have found my _owls_." his eyes became dark as he continued to move forward. "If anything were to go wrong, I'd feel bad for leaving you here...all alone." Sarah ran into something, and as she turned around, she realized it was a cabinet that she kept things for emergencies.

Her thoughts stopped. _Father gave me something to protect myself..._she remembered as she opened the drawer to find the dagger that Robert had given her when she moved out. Her hand searched frantically for the blade, but she didn't find it. "I have Merlin and my husband, I'm not alone..." she said as her hand slid over the metallic blade in the back of the drawer. Before Adrien could come any closer, she ripped the blade out from her cabinet, holding it in front of her. "I'm seriously going to have to ask you to leave." she said quickly as he began to back away.

"No need to get carried away, Ms. Sarah." he said as he held his hands up, continuing to walk backwards towards the door. "I just want to check in on your _husband _is all..." he said as he caught sight of something golden down the hall. _So he is here...this little brat is hiding him._ "But seeing you're not...comfortable...around me. So I'll take my leave..." he said as he walked out the door.

Sarah didn't take any time in closing the door in his face and barricading it. Taking caution, she placed the dagger back in its rightful drawer and went off to find Jareth again. "Come on Merlin." she called, noticing he was still sitting at the door. He turned and wagged his tail, standing up and trotting over to her.

She walked into the bedroom where Jareth was staying in and opened the door, to find he was gone. She snorted as she walked over to the closet door and opened it, stepping aside as he fell to the floor.

"Wonderful hiding spot." she laughed groggily. When he stood up and brushed himself off, she stared at him. "You have some explaining to do..."


	8. Chapter 8

Author's note: Okay, well so far I think I'm doing pretty well with the whole idea of just taking my vicodin and sleeping, but there's no telling what's going on. My mother believes I'm having an allergic reaction to my antibiotic pills, clindamycin, possibly the largest pill I've had to take lately. I'm having a hard time swallowing it. But any how, I thought it might be nice to give you guys an update as to what was going on with my teeth. I hate looking like a chipmunk with my swollen cheeks...oh well. Enjoy.

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Sarah began cooking up some food for the two of them as Jareth sat at the table, his hands folded on top of the table-top. When she sat the plates of pancakes and bacon down in the middle, she handed him an empty plate and sat one down on the opposite side as she went back to the stove to finish up the pot of oatmeal.

Placing two scoops in seperate bowls, she picked them up and walked them over to the table and sat one beside his plate and the other beside hers. Each of them took two pancakes and few slices of bacon before they began to eat.

"So, that man that came by said his name was Adrien." Sarah said between bites of her pancake. "He's the guy who wanted to know about your feathers. He claimed that he was looking for some owls of his." she explained shortly after he ate a few pieces of bacon. "I want to know why he's here, Jareth. None of this happened until I found you outside my home." Jareth sat down his fork and took a deep breath.

"You probably knew this already, but I've been lying to you a little bit." he finally began, "There's no such place as 'Oubliette' here in this world. In fact, I'm not even from this world." Sarah looked at him like he was crazy. "I'm from a parallel universe above this world called the Underground." Sarah began to giggle.

"I think there's something wrong with your brain, Jareth..." he only shook his head to her accusation.

"When I first came to this world, I was a little bit younger than you were, and more or less, stupid." he continued. "Adrien is a hunter, but not of animals. He hunts mythological creatures; things like goblins, trolls, unicorns, faeries. Most people don't believe in fairy-tale creatures, but they're quite real, and people like Adrien see them as a threat to humanity. So he hunts them down to keep humanity protected, although he's threatening our existance."

"You mean to tell me that Adrian Cresen hunts things like Unicorns?" she asked again. Jareth nodded. "But then why is he after you?" he took another bite of his food with his plastic fork. Sarah did the same waiting on his answer.

"You see. There is more than just those that many people list under the term of 'Mythology'. I mentioned Faeries in my list, but there are other terms that are in the same category, such as this. Have you ever heard of the term Fae?" he asked shortly. Sarah thought on it for a minute as she blew on a spoonful of her oatmeal before taking a bite.

"I believe I've heard of it before. Is it in any relation to an elf?" Jareth nodded slightly before actually answering her question.

"Sort of. People get them confused most of the time, considering they both have pointy ears and the slanted eyes, but the race of Fae is more or less related to humans in form." he took a bit of his oatmeal before continuing with his explanation. "My family is actually royalty; each memeber in my family is either the King or Queen of something. I myself am the King of the Goblins and the Protector of the Labyrinth." Sarah looked at him while she took a bit of her pancakes again.

"But that still doesn't explain why Adrien is after you. If you're a king of a place above this one, then what would he want with you?" Jareth smiled wryly.

"That's the funny thing. The Cresen family is only a large group that believes any group of mythological race is a threat to the human society. When I came her years ago, I was captured and experimented on so he would know what affected me the most and the least. Unfortunately, he found out our weakness: iron." Sarah cocked her head as she watched him take a bite of bacon. "When you found my in your yard over a week ago, he had left me there to die after slicing me open with an iron dagger."

"Wait, so is iron just an allergy?" she wondered aloud as they each took a bite of their oatmeal.

"It's actually highly fatal." he explained shortly. "Any touch of iron or anything that has iron particles in it will burn the skin and any place it touches. A small amount might make one sick, but a large amount can either kill a person or just wound them majorly."

"Like when I found you?" Jareth nodded.

"Exactly like that. If you didn't come along and find me, I would have died." he took another bite of pancake before adding, "And for that I owe you my life." he smiled warmly at her, causing her stomach to tingle. She looked down at her food before tossing a few pieces of bacon to Merlin, giggling at the snorting noise he made when he ate the large amount of crispy pork.

_What's wrong with me? _She asked herself. _One smiled and I'm woozy, one touch and I tingle. _"You still haven't answered my question." She muttered. When she looked up, Jareth looked as though he were confused by her question. "Why is he after you? Sure he sees you as a threat, but what happens after that?" she finally asked.

"Well, that's just the thing. If I die, the Labyrinth will fall apart. The entire Underground will be destroyed." Jareth explained. "Adrien wants to destroy every living mythological creature, including those that are no threat to humanity." Sarah looked at him.

"Is there any way that you can prove this to me?" she asked softly. "It's a bit confusing hearing all of this in one morning." Jareth nodded before taking a bite of his bacon again.

"I've got a good idea of how to show you, but I suggest we finish or breakfast first." Sarah agreed.

Once they finished their meal, they made their way into the den where Sarah sat down on the love seat, Jareth stood in front of her. Before she could ask what he was going to do, a crystal appeared in his hand. In an instant, he began to play with it in his hands, swishing the globe back and forth on both the palm of his hand and the back of his hand.

"How is that possible?" she asked as he sat down beside her, allowing her to hold the orb in her hand.

"Things are not always what they seem." Jareth said softly as he took her hands in his, causing the orb to float and glisten in the colors of the rainbow. Jareth smiled down at her when her eyes began sparkling with bliss.

"It's beautiful." she murmured.

"Yes you are..." he sighed softly. Sarah turned her head towards him, sparkles still in her eyes.

"Did you just say...that I was..." she looked into his mismatched eyes. "Beautiful?" the last word escaped almost inaudibly on her breath before he slid his hand across her cheek. His eyes were shimmering just like the light of the crystal. He smoothed her hair back before he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers softly.

Sarah sighed against him, and when he broke off, she just looked into his eyes. He smiled down at her for a moment before he pressed a kiss to her forhead.

"You're not going to fall unconscious, are you?" she asked sarcastically, causing them both to laugh softly.

"No. I promise I won't..." he muttered before pressing another kiss to her lips. "I just don't want you to get hurt by Adrien." he said softly before taking the crystal and allowing it to disappear into thin air just as it had appeared.

"I want to help you, Jareth." she said softly as Merlin came and nudged their knees with his nose, asking for them to pay attention to him and not each other. Both of them rubbed his head before Jareth shook his head.

"He's not one to get tangled with. I don't want you hurt...or worse." he sighed. "He'll do anything he can to get rid of me...and that includes killing you or your family."


	9. Chapter 9

Sarah's mind went blank. _He'd kill anyone who'd get in his way, including me..._something wasn't right about this hunter. "What can you tell me about the Cresen family?" she asked again. "Other than the fact that they hunt Mythological Creatures?" when she looked back at Jareth, his eyes seemed dark.

Sighing deeply, he looked down at Merlin before rubbing his head. "That's the thing." he said softly. "There isn't really much information on them...the Cresen family has never really had any survivors that can help spread word about their duties." he explained casually. "But from what I've heard while I was in his possesion, I heard something...but I can't really remember what it was." he thought for a moment, trying to recall what it was he had heard that night in the cemetery where he was caught.

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_Three men surrounded him, each one was a large, strong man that could take him down within minutes. For Jareth, there was no escape, unless he were to take flight as an owl and go back to the Underground, but judging by the look of things, that wasn't going to be an option either. One of them walked over and kicked him in his side, causing him to sputter in between breaths._

_As he clutched his side, he bowed his head down, trying to conceal his pain in hopes that they would release him if he didn't show any emotion. "Such a pathetic King..." one of them snickered, grabbing his hair and tossing him aside, bellowing with laughter. "What do you think, Adrien? He look like much to you?" A dark figure moved over him, and when he looked up, he found himself staring into glowing eyes the color of wheat._

_"I wouldn't call this rat a King, even if I were under his ruling." he snickered as he smacked Jareth across the face, causing him to fall over. "Poor thing can't even protect himself..." the each shared a bit of laughter until Jareth started caughing again. Each of them looked at him for a moment before Adrien motioned to one of the others._

_Before he knew it, his hands were held behind his back and he was on his feet unwillingly, facing the one that had kicked him earlier. "Go ahead Wayne. Hit, batter him up a little bit. He's not important or anything. Do as you please." a flash of white came across Adrien's face, and Jareth guessed he was smiling, but the thing that scared him a little bit was the fact that his teeth seemed sharp like a demons. Before he could do any further investigation of the men that surrounded, his head was being rammed with something._

_Blood was leaking from his lips, cuts were aching. He felt weak. "Why not give him a bit more of a welcome, there, Wayne? He looks almost like he's missed the best part in life." Another toothy smile shone in the moonlight before his forehead collided with the tree behind him and he fell to the ground in a puddle of blood._

_"So what do we do with him, Adrien?" the unnamed one asked as he curtly kicked Jareth again, turning to Adrien for an idea. "It's not like we can do much with him. Do we even know what he is?" Each of them looked at him before Adrien held them off from attacking Jareth again as he was sitting up and against the tree, trying to keep himself conscious._

_"If he comes from the Underground, and he came here in the shape of an owl, he's definately the Goblin King, Jareth." Adrien explained as he took Jareth's face in his large palm. "His eye markings look significant..." Adrien continued to examine Jareth's features as he moved his hair away from his ears, "And his ears seem a bit pointy, but he's not an elf...too tall." Adrien picked him up and dragged him over to Wayne the the one who had yet to be announced._

_Each of them took one of his arms in their hands, keeping him up on his feet as Adrien continued his search. "His eyes are two different colors, but that could just be a birth-defect...multiple children are born with bi-colored eyes." he muttered, "So what are you exactly, Jareth? You have no horns, so you can't be a devil or demon; you have no wings, which denies you are a pixie; you're ears aren't pointy enough to be an elf..." he began circling them, inspecting his slim figure, still curious about what his race was. "But the marks above your eyes seem very special...where have I seen them before? Oh, yes...that's right." the sound of a snap declared he had been looking in a book. "You must be a Fae, born from the Faerie Highlords."_

_"A fae?" Wayne asked, staring at the blonde in his arms. "Haven't seen one of those in a while..." he snorted loudly._

_"Didn't the fae and the humans go to war back in the medieval times?" the other asked._

_"Yes Collin, I believe they did..." Adrien said shortly. "So if you are a Fae, then that means we have a right to keep ahold of you for experimentation...considering you could attempt another war to disrupt our way of life here in our world."_

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Jareth shook his head. "That day was awful." he rubbed the back of his head, trying to make the memory go away. He shivered. Sarah looked at him for a while before she stood up and went over to the spare room that wasn't being used. As she came back, Jareth noticed she was holding something. Before he could ask what it was, she sat down opposite of him and tossed the bottom of it outward.

"Considering you can't go out the way you are," she began as she held it up, "we should probably get you some different clothing, that way maybe Adrien won't notice you right away?" as she stood, the object fluttered lightly. Sarah smiled, "Starting with this cloak."

~*~

**Okay, so as you can see, this has been editted a little bit. :D The thing is, now that I've starting working on the next chapter (which would have been 11, but 10 served absolutely no purpose...) I realized I had nowhere else to go with this story, which led to a different story being written at about 3 in the morning until my computer crashed last night as I was about to work on it again. Now I have to use the main system which fails as a computer itself. Wonderful, isn't it? Any how, as the Auther, I thought those who were reading this would like to know what was going on (and that you're not crazy either...I deleted chapter 10).**

~(0)~ Till next time: MJ Huwaine ~(0)~


	10. Chapter 10

It had been nearly a week since the attack on Karen's house and since Adrien had entered her house by force, and Sarah hadn't a clue as to what she was supposed to do. If the hunter was after her and her family along with Jareth, how could she stay away from danger? It seemed like there was no way out either way she looked at it.

She took in the idea of staying at an Inn somewhere out of town, but knowing Adrien, he probably had some sort of hunting dog that could follow their scent, so she threw the idea away hastily. Then she thought about trying to stay put where she was in hopes that maybe if they lay low he would forget, but that's what they had been doing when they were discovered.

As she rolled over, she looked at the shattered picture frames that were still laying on her wooden floor, a single picture of her original family laying in a heap underneath it. She hadn't cleaned it up all this time and she hadn't a clue as to why.

The broken crystals glistened in the descending sunlight, causing a small smile to curl across her face. It reminded her of Jareth the day he had shown her the truth about him and his family. The crystal ball he had held could do anything that he wanted it to, but there was no telling what those things were.

Another idea came into her head. If Jareth could see the future, wouldn't he know how to defeat Adrien? It was a slight possibility, but the sight-seeing idea could always be wrong because of the idea that people make their own fates, which meant the future is always changing. But Adrien had to have a weakness, and Sarah knew it.

She got off her bed and headed towards Jareth's room, the idea still fresh within her mind. When she entered, he looked up from a book he was reading that he had taken from her bookshelf. A small smile played at his lips when she sat in the chair beside his bed.

"I have an idea," she began, "But there's a chance it may not work." Jareth sat the book down on the bedside table and folded his hands in his lap, ready to listen. "You can use your crystals to see into the future, past or present, correct?" Jareth blinked a few times before nodding. "Wouldn't you be able to look into Adrien's past to find his weakness or something?"

He looked at her for a moment before thinking about it. "I'm afraid it wouldn't be that easy, dear Sarah." He said finally. "You see, Adrien isn't the only one out there who does this for a living, thus, there's no telling if he has a weakness, but seeing he's human," Jareth looked out the window for a moment, "Anything that can cause quite a bit of damage would work against him, say a knife, or a rifle?" Sarah nodded as she recalled the dagger in the drawer.

"What would happen if you two met again?" she wondered softly, not really wanting to hear the answer.

"A great battle would take place." Now that Sarah thought about it, Jareth was actually rather strong. He had magic, while Adrien was simply human; but Adrien knew about the race of the Fae, which gave him an advantage.

But Jareth had Sarah, and Sarah had a horse, which meant she could trample him if she liked. But Adrien had the power of men as well, which meant they could take care of her easily, with or without a horse. Maybe if she could lead the extra men away, Jareth could take care of Adrien; but Sarah wasn't strong enough to take care of his followers. She was, well to put it simply, small compared to Adrien, which also meant that his men were either a tad smaller than him or the same size.

"I don't think it's a good idea for either of us to get involved with him." Jareth said, breaking her train of thought. He was watching her the entire time, which meant she was easy to read. "I don't want to see you get hurt because of something my forefathers started; especially considering the idea that neither of us would be able to win against him."

Sarah blinked up at him for a moment before she decided upon the words she was going to say. "There is a way." Jareth only stared at her, "If I were to take my horse and lead the others away, you could take on Adrien, one on one, and make it fair." Now that they were both thinking about it, Jareth saw a slim chance to finally defeat Adrien and what he stood for.

"Many a day did the mythological world live in fear of the Cresen family, and now, as you and I are about to descend upon this idea, there's a chance we can finally live in peace and freedom." Jareth grinned wryly before his eyes rested upon Sarah again, "Are you sure you wish to do this?" Sarah nodded.

"If it's going to help you be safe and save the remainder of the mythological world, then I'm going to help in any way that I can." Jareth smiled at her.

As he kissed her forehead, he muttered against her hair, "And that's the way it should be."

~*~

Adrien sat at the bar as he had before, inspecting the golden feather in his hand once more. The color seemed to have gotten brighter since the last time he had looked at it, and that only meant on thing. Jareth was getting stronger.

_That girl has been healing him. There's no way she knows what he is, but knowing him, he's probably gone and told her to stay away, so I can't try to get close to her. _As he was plotting, Wayne came up from behind and sat beside him, ordering himself a beer.

"Any luck?" he asked as he received his drink. Adrien shook his head. "Well, we know where he is, so we can use that for something, can't we?" Adrien only stared into his Vodka as he continued to think about a way around Sarah.

Wayne continued babbling about ideas of how to draw Jareth out to finally be rid of the Goblin King; Collin and the others began laughing in the background, adding to the noise. "It's not like he can kidnap her or anything!" Hal laughed obnoxiously. An idea sparked within Adrien's head at the joke.

"Shut it!" Adrien bellowed throughout the Tavern. Everyone was dead silent as they turned to look at him. "If we're going to bring him out in the open, we need to get Sarah away from him." Everyone began to smile wildly as they all began to laugh devilishly.


	11. Chapter 11

Jareth was still sleeping the morning away, his wounds finally being healed. They hadn't seen Adrien in a while either, but Sarah still didn't like the idea of leaving her house for a number of reasons. The only time she'd leave her house was to get groceries in the marketplace or if she was sick, which wasn't likely. But her horse had seemed to be neglected for a matter of days, and Sarah knew she had to take care of him, lest she wanted to lose her only way of getting around.

She checked in on Jareth before she went on with her day, and was simply happy with the idea of actually having another person in her home. She had never really thought of the idea of having a roommate or a husband, figuring it would only take away from her independence that she was given by her parents years ago, not only that, but Sarah always felt like she had a bad judgment of character. She usually ended up dating someone who constantly got in fights during her high school year, which caused Karen to discipline her to no end until she finally gave up on dating life and decided to settle down in a home of her own after high school was through.

After that, she completely forgot about the life of people, considering her life in the country side was rather quiet and simple, but she liked having Jareth around. It made her feel special, in a way; almost like someone finally cared about her for once in her life.

Gathering her things for the morning, she looked up to find Merlin sitting at the door, his tail swishing back and forth on the carpet. Sarah smiled and laughed silently to herself. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to bring you out with me, now would it?" Merlin's tongue fell out between his teeth in reply and she shook her head at the lazy mutt.

Merlin ran out the door as Sarah went towards the barn where she kept her horse. She hadn't groomed the stallion in days, and he was probably caked in mud from the other night when she went into town. With brush in hand, she went ahead of her dog and into the barn and began to brush him off, only to find Merlin was gone.

"Merlin?" she turned around in a complete circle as she whistled for him, "Here boy!" she continued to search for him, but to no avail. _He was just here a moment ago. Where'd he get off to?_ She searched the stall where she stabled her horse, but Merlin was no where near the large animal.

She continued to search the barn, and still no results. Almost on cue, Merlin began barking as he rushed past the barn doors and in the opposite direction. "Merlin!" He ran past the house and continued until he was almost out of sight.

Sarah didn't bother saddling up her horse, she threw on the bridle and hopped up and took off after him.

After a while, she lost track of him, but she continued to look in the deep woods. "Merlin?" she muttered softly, turning her head in different directions, keeping her eyes out for the lazy sheep dog. Her horse, Jericho, stopped every now and then, spooked by the occasional hoot of an owl. She rubbed the side of his neck, muttering softly to him, trying to calm him down a little bit.

Out of nowhere, a rat skittered by, a snake chasing it, causing Jericho to rear upward, knocking Sarah to the ground. "Now!" In that very moment, a bunch of men pounced on her, tying her hands behind her back and holding her down. "You've been an awful pain in my side, Ms. Sarah." One of the said as they came out from behind a tree, his hands behind his back; when Sarah looked up, her eyes widened.

"Adrien!" he laughed as he squatted down to meet her gaze, his hand gripped her chin and held her face. Sarah glared at him, trying to pry her face from his grasp, but she had no luck. "What do you want; let me go!" Adrien only laughed again as one of his men searched her for any threats; one of them found the dagger she had.

"Now what would you need this for?" he asked as he held it between two of his fingers by the hilt. Sarah's heart skipped a beat. Now that she was out in the open, which meant Jareth was in danger, especially since Adrien knew where she lived. Her breath caught in her throat as if she was suffocating, but nothing was there to block her air ways. Trying to keep herself from falling unconscious, she struggled against her bonds, but she couldn't break free; they were tied too tight. "I'll make a deal with you, Princess. You tell me where to find the Goblin King, and I'll free you." Adrien smiled down at her as he tossed the blade aside.

"I'm not helping you murder him!" she snapped, pulling at the ropes once more, still wanting to break out of the ropes that were cutting into her wrists. Adrien's eyebrow twitched a little bit, but an idea came to his mind.

"Oh really?" he and his thugs began to laugh. "Well, if you want your pet to be safe, I suggest you tell us where he is." He already knew he was at her house, but he wanted to make sure she didn't hide him anywhere. Adrien held up his hand, motioning someone to come forward.

The man who came forth had a cage in hand; another was following close behind, the same cage in hand, helping him bring it forward. They placed it on the ground, causing its contents to bark loudly. "Merlin!" Sarah could feel her adrenaline pumping through her veins, tears causing her vision to blur slightly. "Let him go! He has no part in this!" she choked on the last word, trying to hold back whatever tears that threatened to fall.

"Then tell me where to find the Goblin King." He sneered sadistically. Sarah swallowed the lump that sat in the back of her throat, trying to fight back her fear for her pet. "Or the dog will never be seen again, and your family will suffer greatly." Sarah hid her face, trying to decide if she should save Merlin or Jareth.

"If I tell you, you have to promise not to hurt any part of my family…" she muttered softly. Adrien simply chuckled to himself as he looked at the faces of all the men that surrounded him.

"You have my word as a gentleman."


	12. Chapter 12

Jareth woke up later than usual. When he looked at the clock that hung on the wall, it read to be past twelve in the afternoon. _Odd. Sarah usually wakes me up before twelve._ He got up to find a fresh pair of clothing on the chair.

He changed quickly and went out to find Sarah was gone. Looking around, he found a note on the door. Picking it up, he noticed Sarah's name on the bottom of the parchment. Reading it carefully, he found that Sarah was in the barn taking care of her horse. "Maybe I should go check in on her." He muttered as he sat the paper on the table by the door and left through the door.

Making his way toward the barn, something didn't feel right to him. His feelings were found true as he entered the barn to find Sarah wasn't there. Searching for a note telling him she had gone into town or something, he came upon the brushes on the floor. _Something's wrong here. _Picking up the brush, he placed them on the shelf where Sarah normally placed them when she was finished brushing the horse.

Sarah never placed the brushes on the floor in fear that they were get covered in fleas or some sort of pest that could annoy the animal. Not only that, but he noticed that Merlin didn't pester him in the morning either. Everyone that lived in or at the house was gone, and with Adrien running around, he feared the worst had happened to her.

Without looking around to make sure no one was watching, Jareth brought forth a crystal, looking within it to find Sarah tied to the back of a horse. In that moment, he was attacked from behind. Without checking to see who it was, he shoved his elbow backwards into the persons stomach, spinning on his heel to bring his knee cap into the mans face. Jareth watched as he fell backwards, blood spilling from his nose. He was still breathing, which meant he was only unconscious. _Where there's one, there is always another._

Walking out of the barn, he found that there were more, just as he had figured. Looking around him, he found Adrien on Sarah's horse, holding a rope that led to Sarah's hands. "We meet again, Jareth." He chuckled as two of the men took Sarah's shoulders and threw her forward to bring Jareth's attention to something other than him. "Did you miss me?" he hoped down from his horse as a few of his men began to close in on the King.

Without thinking about it, the palms of his hands collided with each of their faces, causing them to stumble backwards, covering their faces. One of them came forward again, being brave. Jareth turned around, shoving his foot into his gut, knocking him to the ground. Bringing his foot downward, he swept it under the other one, tripping him.

"So you _do _know how to protect yourself…" Adrien snickered as he threw a dagger to the man standing beside him. "Take care of him Hal." Hal smiled as he muttered 'with pleasure' and walked towards him. Jareth summoned a crystal and threw it at him; the orb smashed against his face, blinding him in the right eye, blood dribbling down the side of his face. In the process, he dropped the dagger into the lawn as he stumbled to the ground, blood covering his hand.

Another came forward, and he noticed that it was Collin from before. Smiling, Jareth summoned more of his crystals and tossed them all at once in his direction. Just like before, it smashed against his face, but only cutting open his forehead; the others hit his torso with minor damage. In blinded rage, Collin hurled himself towards Jareth, landing a punch to the face.

Jareth countered the kick with his bare hand, thrusting his elbow into the side of his throat, which knocked him back a bit, but he still came forward, landing a few more blows to Jareth's sides, leaving behind multiple abrasions. Jareth managed to his him in the face a few times, but Collin didn't go down easily.

Collin caught one of Jareth's hands, trying to land another shot, but ended up getting another crystal to the face, blinding him in both eyes. Rearing back, Jareth managed to knock him over. That just left Wayne and a few others…and Adrien. Jareth was already tired from not having used magic in a while. "Seems to me you've gotten stronger." Adrien chuckled to himself, amused.

"Yeah, and looks like you still rely on your men's strength rather than yours." Jareth smiled wryly towards him, sending off a wave of crystals, blinding the others with his magic. All he could do was throw his crystals around, considering he couldn't touch anything iron made or based to kill any of the others off. "Sadly, they're all just petty humans." Adrien growled as each of his thugs fell to the ground covering their faces as blood trickled between their fingers and into the grass.

"It seems being with this little rat has made you a little cocky, Jareth." He hopped down from Sarah's horse, holding a rope that led to Sarah's wrists. "Too bad you'll never see her again." As his thugs slowly died off from blood-lose, Adrien stepped forward, taking out a dagger of his own. "And another thing…" he let go of Sarah's bonds, the rope falling to the ground, "I killed her father." Sarah gasped beneath her gag as Adrien continued to move forward, dodging every crystal that flew his way.

Jareth was cornered shortly between Adrien and the barn. Silently cursing himself, Jareth tried to throw his fist into Adrien's face, but his hand was caught, the blade of the dagger pressing into his arm. Jareth cried out in pain, trying to break free of his grasp.

Adrien tossed him to the side, kicking him in his side. Jareth choked on his breath, taking another blow to his stomach. Sarah only watched in wide-eyed terror, unable to do anything else but cry and hide her face with her hair. She directed her gaze to the ground, hoping to rid herself of the frightening image. What caught her eye gave her an idea.

There in front of her lay the dagger that Hal was given earlier. _If I can just get down far enough, I can cut the rope and free myself,_ her mind worked fast on how she could put her plan into action, _then I can help Jareth._ Falling to her knees, she moved her hands towards the dagger, picking it up between her palms and letting the fall downward so she could guide it over the thick twine. With a little work, she was freed.

Ripping off the gag that covered her mouth, she took one look at the dagger and then stared at Adrien just in time to find he was about to stab Jareth in the back of the shoulder. She stood up and yelled loudly at Adrien, causing him to turn around.

With every bit of strength she had, Sarah shoved the dagger into Adrien's chest, causing him to spit up blood, choking. She removed the dagger and moved before he could fall on her. While Adrien lay there dead like the rest of his followers, Sarah went over to Jareth, trying to help him in the best way she could. "Are you okay?" Jareth rolled over onto his back, taking a deep breath.

"Yes." He coughed a little bit before he reached up and brushed away a strand of Sarah's hair. "And for that, I owe you my life."


	13. Chapter 13

With the death of Adrien, Sarah was back where she started with healing Jareth. Although the wounds were simply minor, she still felt obligated to let him stay at her house for a while more; along with the fact she didn't honestly want him to leave.

Considering she's known him for only a few weeks, a little over a month if she had to guess, they've been through enough together that she felt like they were supposed to be together somehow. Although she was afraid to admit it, Sarah believed herself to be in love with the Goblin King.

Not only had she saved his life, but in a way, he had saved hers. She was lonely, seeking adventure, anything to rid herself of solitude and along came Jareth, answering her prayers. Sure, the doctor gave her a good run every now and then, but only because he was old and didn't know what he was doing half the time.

Sarah stared at herself in the mirror for what seemed like hours. There was not a reason she could find to rule herself out of believing she loved him, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized that he possibly didn't share the same thoughts of feelings with her. Sure, they had kissed on her couch days ago before the battle by her barn took place, but still, he had kissed her a number of times before, it could have meant nothing to him.

_Maybe I could talk to him about it, _she thought for a moment, _that way I could find out whether or not I should throw them away._ It seemed like a good idea, but the way the mind of a man worked, she probably could never get the truth out of him, but now that there wasn't anyone to take her away from him or vise versa, maybe he'd be open and honest with him. Possibilities seemed slim, but she still had a chance.

Mustering up the courage, she walked to his room, hesitating at the door. Taking a deep breath, she went in to find he was again reading a book. He looked up as she took her seat, just as he had before, a smile curled into the features of his face. She smiled back at him. "How are you doing?" she asked, looking at the bandages, finding there was no more blood about them.

"Just fine, nothing major happened." She had already known that, but if she didn't start off with something simple, she'd babble into the next decade without realizing it. "Are you okay, Sarah?" she looked up for a moment then hid her gaze, unable to think of a way to go about this.

Sighing heavily, she looked up and into his eyes. "How long do you think you'll stay before heading back to your kingdom in the Underground?" she asked softly. A wave of shock washed over Jareth's face. Looking away, he thought about his answer before he rambled off some random time.

"Probably a week or two." He murmured before looking back into his eyes. "The Labyrinth isn't laying in ruins just yet, so I won't be needed just yet." Sarah looked at him for a while before nodding and thinking that maybe she should just leave before she hurt herself, more or less, _he _hurt her. He was going to leave by the end of the second month, possibly no more, no less.

"I'm sure you're kingdom needs you." She said almost inaudibly. Jareth only looked at her, puzzled.

"Something's amiss, dear Sarah." Reaching forward, his hand caress her cheek, "What is it?" Sarah tried to find the words but she could only break down and cry. Without fully realizing why she cried, he did as he had before; he gently pulled her against him, allowing her to have a shoulder to cry upon.

He gently smoothed her hair against the back of her head, calming her down bit by bit. _Why am I crying? _Sarah's mind continued to yell at her to quit acting like such a child. _He is a king after all. His kingdom will need him more than I need him anyhow. _Soon her sobs became small little sniffles but she still let her head rest against the chest of the Goblin King.

"Sarah?" without looking up, she mumbled slightly in return before he continued, "What is it you plan to do when I leave?" she hadn't really thought about it much, but she figured she would do the same thing she had done before he showed up; nothing.

"I'm not sure." She sighed softly, enjoying the moment they were sharing, "I'll probably go check in on Karen and Toby to see how they're doing, make sure they're all right." She thought on her minor possibilities of a future, "maybe try to find a job somewhere else in town." Jareth nodded, thinking upon her possibilities as well.

"Would you like to do me a favor?" he asked, looking down at her for a moment, smiling gently down at her. "One final thing before I leave for the Underground?" Sarah's heart sank, knowing that it was probably just going to be something silly like a good-bye kiss, but she nodded any how. "Will you become my Queen?"

Sarah felt like her heart had stopped beating. _Become his Queen? _She looked up at him with questioning eyes, "but why would you want me as the Goblin Queen?" she murmured softly, "You don't think of me as childish?" Jareth simply chuckled to himself before he pressed a small kiss to her forehead.

"Nonsense," he began, "you not only saved me, but an entire race and more." Smiling softly, his gaze met hers. "And not only that, but ever since the moment I had lain eyes on you, I knew you were perfect." Sarah still didn't believe her ears. "Why do you think I was down here in the first place?" he asked.

"Well, there could have been a number of reasons," she thought upon what she thought was the reason before adding, "you could have been banished or here to rid the world of Adrien." Jareth laughed slightly before shaking his head.

"No, dear Sarah, it was to find a bride." His hand found hers, their fingers interlacing, "And I pick you, if you'll have me." She smiled at him.

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

**So, what do you guys think? Was it good (and yes, I realize that it ends with a cliff hanger, but I seem to be good at these types of things) or does the ending positively suck? Well, any how, I needed to get this done somewhere around this chapter considering school is starting this Tuesday (25****th**** of August) and I'll have less time on my hands to write stories for you guys.**

**First things first, I want to thank everyone who has reviewed my story and has read it chapter by chapter, and I also want to thank those who have added me to their Author Alerts list. I'm glad you like my writing style, but I must warn you, I don't write just Labyrinth fanfics, but I might write more one day.**

**Speaking of people who have added me to their Author alerts, I just want to have you all head warning: I'm starting a Kingdom Hearts fanfic, in fact, I was up past midnight writing the first part of it.**

**Thanks again, and I hope you all enjoyed this (because you guys are the only reason I get up in the morning to drag my butt over to my writing station and get this done)!**

**You're friend and humble author,**

**MJ Huwaine**


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